


Taking Me Higher

by iniquiticity



Series: Overwhelmed [1]
Category: Hockey RPF, Sports RPF
Genre: 2009-2010 Season, Fluff, Love at First Sight, M/M, San Jose Sharks, cavity-inducing fluff, sickly sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-18
Updated: 2013-04-18
Packaged: 2017-12-08 20:16:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/765556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iniquiticity/pseuds/iniquiticity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's more to this kid and suddenly he can see the future with the two of them on the same line, shooting and scoring, embracing the kid in a tight celebratory hug as Rock & Roll Part 2 plays and the fans cheer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taking Me Higher

**Author's Note:**

> RP Cloweture. Listen to "Overwhelmed" by Tim McMorris on repeat. Get this. Warning: this will give you cavities it's so fluffy. 
> 
> There's at least one more segment here. Likely not in linear fashion.
> 
> For Lei, who makes my Cloweture life.

It's not until the kid makes the team that Ryane really notices. He doesn't pay attention to other people in camp, not besides his friends - Rob, Jumbo, Pickles, Patty, the crew he knows. The kids in camp go and come and he barely looks at them besides in the hockey sense. 

But when the kid makes camp and puts on his sweater, Ryane sees him, and Ryane doesn’t know how he didn't see him before - this kid, not even old enough to drink, he bets. Something about the set of his shoulders and the square of his jaw makes Ryane stop. The kid looks back at him, offering a headtilt, and he tries to look smaller because that's what rookies do when they make camp for the first time. They agree, they do the hard work, they listen and don't talk. They absorb like sponges. Ryane remembers what that's like, in that distant way he remembers things from a long time ago.

There's got to be more to this kid than your typical raw rookie. Ryane knows that somewhere in his chest, where there’s a sharp surge of heat, like someone has squeezed his heart in just the right way. When the kid makes eye contact with him and quickly looks away he sees more than your prototypical third-line scrub. There's more to this kid and suddenly he can see the future with the two of them on the same line, shooting and scoring, embracing the kid in a tight celebratory hug as Rock & Roll Part 2 plays and the fans cheer. He doesn't remember the kid's name from camp, even. He can't imagine what it might sound like when they call his name when the kid scores. But the details fill in like wet concrete. It doesn’t matter. This kid is something special. 

He rubs his chest and grins at the kid, like something hasn't hit him upside the head. Or maybe that’s just what he looks like - stunned deep at the core.

The kid smiles back at him and his heart pounds, loud in his ears. He thinks, for a second, he might need to see a trainer because something strange is happening right now to him, his hands and feet tingling warm, chest hurting sweetly. The kid is called away though, someone else yelling at him (Logan, his name is Logan) - and Ryane feels like he can breathe again when the moment breaks like fever. He's played plenty of hockey, been exhausted and dead-tired and pain-filled and impossible to move off his skates. He's dropped onto the bench and barely been able to stop from his head dropping between his knees. He's been hit with shots and pucks and fists. 

He's never felt anything like this, his whole chest tightening up, his mouth going dry. When the kid - Logan - walks away, he takes a breath and it feel like coming out of a trance. He stares down at his legs and then at his hands, like something's just happened, like he thinks he might have lost something or undergone some dramatic change. He looks at everyone else.

Rob is staring at him and looking like he's going to bust a gut holding in his laughter, the age-lines in his face twisted in his smile. Jumbo is looking at Patty and grinning that grin he has when he knows how the play is going to develop and no one else knows yet. Patty is agreeing with him with only his eyes, like only Patty can do with Jumbo.

"What?" He says to the three of them, and then Rob actually does start laughing, booming through the locker room, the sound like one of his devastating checks. Jumbo starts laughing too, and then Patty. 

"The fuck are you all laughing at?" He asks again, unable to stop grinning at them. It's a good time right now, with the season about the start, and he's just been struck and rendered stupid by some 20 year old forward who just made camp and his three best friends are definitely laughing at him for some reason. His whole body feels lighter than air, not yet abused by the season and his fights. His whole body feels lifted by the kid’s smile.

"Christ, just write him a love poem, okay?" Rob says, and starts taking off his gear. "You know what, forget the love poem. Get on one knee and whip the ring out right there, Clowey." 

"What are you talking about?" Ryane asks back, and that lightness is coming back down to earth, tinging with confusion like smoke. But Logan's face is still somewhere imprinted in the back of his head - dark eyes, crazy helmet hair, square jaw - and when he thinks of it his heart pounds again. 

"You gave him a look, man," Jumbo says, flopping down into his spot next to the captain. He's already mostly undressed. Thornton is grinning at him, ear-to-ear, the way he looks after a good game or a hard practice. "This is a locker room, not a dating site. Ask him if he wants to go to the movies. Can't drink yet, I don't think. You simmered at him. Positively smoldered, I think.”

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ryane replies, because he doesn't know what else to say. The next thing he thinks of is asking the rookie (Logan) to go see a movie with him, and somehow it tightens up his chest again, makes warmth grow in his stomach like a goal lamp. 

Rob starts laughing again, tossing his gear in a bag and pulling his towel over his waist. "You're dumb as bricks, Clowey," he says, all new captainly affection. It's his first year with the C, barely his first day, and somehow it seems like it should have always been like this. He talks like Ryane is his little brother. "Figure it out on your own. Maybe between now and our first game? If you're making doe eyes at the kid during games I'm gonna kick your ass." 

He struts off to the shower. Ryane stares at Jumbo and Patty, both wearing those grins. 

"I'll find out his favorite kind of takeout on the road for you," Patty says.

"I'll find out his favorite music," Jumbo adds, and the two of them, laughing, follow their captain to the back. 


End file.
